


An offer you can't refuse

by galaxylove



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: F/F, Minor violence because duh, Sort Of, Spies & Secret Agents, the other ships are heavy on the side
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 17:47:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13276692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxylove/pseuds/galaxylove
Summary: The agency Park Jihyo has worked under for the past 10 years is in desperate need of help in taking down a specific threat, and the only way they can do it is by convincing the vigilante crime team that's been unlawfully sweeping the streets for years to help them.A SaHyo agents AU.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> honestly i had this planned as a oneshot but my dumb ass set myself up for at least another chapter or two, i'm open to suggestions so hmu on twitter @tiffatologist if you want me to write anything  
> also the world needs more sahyo

   “Dahyun, that is your third mimosa this evening.”

  She eyed her partner from across the crowded room, noting the eager way she drained the glass of its contents.

  “This has got to be believable right?” Dahyun’s voice blared in her ear canal with a small burst of static. If she hadn’t have been used to it, she might have flinched, but instead she took another small sip of the (single) drink she had been nursing since this mission was undertaken. She gave another brief sweep of the room, looking for any anomalies before she replied. Hard eyes landed on the hot bartender giving Dahyun a look somewhere between mild concern and indifferent amusement.

  “There’s a difference between being believable and taking advantage of the situation, Dubz.” She witnessed Dahyun flagging down said hot bartender again, ordering another drink. She watched the mental calculation play out on the girls’ face before she agreed, Jihyo silently approving of how diligent this girl was in monitoring her patrons.

  She took another sip of her drink, letting the sharp, tangy taste of rum and coke spill over her tongue before swallowing quickly. This had to be believable, but that didn’t mean she had to enjoy it.

  She wishes she could say the same for Dahyun, who had now begun shuffling her way on to the dancefloor in a very wobbly execution of the next part of their plan.

  Jihyo sighed and tapped the side of her watch twice, establishing an open communications link to the third member of their team.

  “Son, what’s Kim’s drink tolerance like? You know her more than me.” She sighed good naturedly, sure that the microphone clipped just inside one of her earrings would be able to filter out the thumping bass of whatever club track was vibrating her table and pick up her murmured words.

  “Uhh,” a voice droned in her ear, devoid of the burst of static because Chaeyoung actually knew how to wait before speaking into her microphone, “what and how many has she had?”

  Jihyo swilled the leftover alcohol in her glass, not particularly keen on finishing it.

  “Mimosa, and four.” Jihyo answered, keeping her mouth movements as minimal as possible to prevent suspicion. Their target could be watching them, she wasn’t sure, but that was why Dahyun was already  dancing with her sixth person of the night in an attempt to flush out information. She was good, Jihyo admitted reluctantly, even if she was throwing out some questionable movements right now.

  She kind of liked the over exuberant young agent, she’d realised pretty soon after their first mission as a team.

  “Oh, she’s completely fine.” The voice in her ear said dismissively. “Dubz has drunk the _commander_ under the table before, so something like that is probably not even enough to get her buzzed.”

  “You should get her to challenge Nayeon.” Jihyo laughed, watching her partner move onto suitor number ten.

 Not that Nayeon is good at drinking, Jihyo muses. She’s just very stubborn and won't back down from a challenge.

  (And also a _highly_ amusing drunk.)

  “If we’re even allowed to associate with her team now.” Chaeyeong grumbled in her ear, causing Jihyo to sigh and place her glass down.

  “Hey, I’m sorry things happened like it did.”

  “No no no!” Chaeng started, tripping over her tongue in her haste, “I like having you on the team a lot don’t get me wrong, I just-“

  “You miss your girlfriend, right?”

  The silence in her ear drowned out the screams and cheers in the club, Dahyun’s included.

  “Yeah,” a heavy sigh, probably accompanied by a frustrated ruffle of her hair. She was learning the habits of her new team members, little by little. “I do, a lot.”

  “Maybe it was a little stupid to try and make out on base.”

  Jihyo snorted into her mic, almost blowing her appearance of a sane club goer, masking it by bringing the mostly empty glass up to her lips. The agency didn’t allow inter-team relationships, in fact, they frowned heavily on relationships between agents in general. Missions became difficult, even more so when there were relationships and feelings involved, making even the best of agents second guess decisions or drop the mission entirely if a loved one was in danger.

  So when their commander walked into what he _thought_ was an empty communication room to find one of their best tech agents on top of their newest field agent, he blanched and understandably separated immediately.

  Jihyo, the agency’s longest running field agent, found herself being swapped effective immediately with the newest recruit. Chou Tzuyu found herself on a team with Im Nayeon and  Yoo Jeongyeon (who exchanged uneasy looks when they learned the reason Tzuyu had been placed with them) and Park Jihyo was planted firmly in a team consisting of Kim Dahyun and Son Chaeyoung.

  “You guys just need to learn the tricks of the trade.” Jihyo teased, thinking of her former team mates who’d been getting away with this game for years now. “There are plenty of places on site where you can get away for a little… _rendezvous_.”

  “Shut up,” came the murmured reply, making a small smile break out on the agent’s face. She looked down at the table to hide it, despite no one being around to see it.

  “Hi.”

  It took her a moment to realise that voice came from in front of her instead of her ear, and so she dragged her eyes off of the table to look up. She forced herself not to react like she wanted to, which should have been eyes wide open and jaw on the floor.

  “Hi.” She responds pathetically, hearing Chaeng’s soft snicker in her ear. The woman standing in front of her is beautiful, to an extent that Jihyo’s not even sure she’s real, and then she flashes the agent a big, toothy grin and Jihyo feels her stomach drop somewhere to the sticky club floor.

   _Remember the mission._

  “What’s a beautiful lady like yourself doing all alone in a club?” She asked, her voice soft and high and audible despite the volume of the thumping bass coming from the oversized speakers.

  “I could ask you the same question.” Jihyo retorts, hand holding the almost empty glass of drink so she’d at least have something to do with them. She hears another snicker in her ear and she’s sure it’s because Chaeng is viewing her vitals on a screen some couple of miles away and watching her heart rate spike violently. She takes another sip of her drink to quell the ball of nerves in her stomach.

  “I don’t know about you,” the girl began, taking a seat on the stool next to Jihyo with crossed legs, “but I’m looking for someone to dance with.”

  Jihyo felt a high-heeled foot drag itself up her bare calf and she resisted the urge to shudder. She looked into positively bewitching eyes, and lips bared so teasingly in front of her.

  “Is that so?” Jihyo mused, years of training keeping her voice stable and not at all stuttering like she knew she would be in any other scenario. She hoped Chaeng was looking at the feed from the miniscule camera in one of the sequins from her dress.

  “Go.” Came the voice in her ear, excitement and dread mixing in her stomach at the approval. “I’m getting some hits from her face but it might take me awhile to clean the images enough to get something concrete, but that _might_ be her.”

  Jihyo gulped and it had nothing to do with the girl in front of her, who’s smile grew wolfish at Jihyo’s apparent nervousness. _Perfect,_ she thought.

  “I’d hate to disappoint.” Jihyo sighed, flicking her eyes up to look directly into the pair that hadn’t left her own since she arrived at her table. The effect was immediate, a slender hand reaching forward to wrap tightly around Jihyo’s dress and tug her from her stool. Jihyo barely had time to pull her dress down to an appropriate level, the fabric riding up from all her time sat observing on the stool, before she found herself deep in the crowd of club goers pressed against the slim body who dragged her in. The people around her jostled them both, shifting and sliding against each other automatically.

  An unfamiliar hand came to rest on her hips, moving them both to the swaying rhythm of a jamaican infused track that she couldn’t understand but she knew it sounded good, so she threw away a little of her inhibitions and curved a hand of her own around the small of the girls back to pull her closer.

  “You are aware I can’t fucking see anything if you’re basically plastered to her body right.”

  Jihyo rolled her eyes at the monotonous voice coming from her earpiece, using her hand to pull the sinuous body in front of her impossibly closer and push a firm leg in between the girls. She heard a high, throaty laugh escape from her mouth before it shut tightly into an infectious grin, two arms reaching up to wrap around her neck and pulling her down. She always was susceptible to whatever was going around, and she found herself sporting a very similar grin as full lips brushed the lobe of her ear.

  “I think,” she breathed heavily into her ear, making Jihyo jolt with every warm breath skating down her skin, “that we should take this somewhere else.”

  She punctuated her sentence with a sharp nip of her teeth, grazing the shell of Jihyo’s ear lobe ever so slightly.

   _The mission. Remember the fucking mission, Jihyo._

  “Jesus Christ that was the hottest thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life.”

  Chaeyoung’s numb voice cut through her hazy mind as nimble fingers wrapped around her wrist once more, taking her prolonged silence and disgustingly eager eyes as acceptance. She surreptitiously moved to tap her watch twice, hoping the strangers constantly bumping into the pair would make the small movement unnoticeable. Her comm link opened and she sighed shakily.

  “I’m telling Tzuyu you said that.” Was the only thing she said before she tapped again, shutting the link to hear Chaeyoung’s indignant, pleading squawk in her ear.

  Their movement came to an abrupt halt as a very familiar, drunk body almost fell on them, stumbling obliviously into their path with a bashful grin.

  “Hey, sorry about that guys!” Dahyun shouted good-naturedly, clapping a hand on each of their shoulders heavily. “You two enjoy your night, eh?” She shouted over the music, barely hesitating before throwing herself back into the crowd of revellers. She shared a brief, intense look with Jihyo before she did, eyes filled with a piercingly sober clarity and a small nod of her head. Jihyo watched her leave with something that might have been affection, before turning back to see the girl watching her with a perplexing look in her eyes. It disappeared almost before it began, but Jihyo couldn’t help but think it meant something.

  “Glad I’m not that far gone yet.” She said easily, continuing their journey down a corridor with a sign leading to the toilets. Jihyo gave a small, encouraging laugh.

  “Don’t you want to be, though?”

  She got a positively lascivious grin in return.

  “If I was that drunk there’s an _awful_ lot of things I wouldn’t be able to do properly.” Alluring, half-lidded eyes stared directly into Jihyo’s own as she spoke, implicature laced in her words and accompanied by a small lilt of her eyebrows. Jihyo’s lips suddenly felt incredibly dry, and her tongue darted out to wet them, not missing the keen way the girl in front of her tracked the brief action.

  “Should I… should I turn the mic off?” Chaeyoung said nervously, laughing into her mouthpiece. “Just keep her there,” she continued, Jihyo hearing the furious clacking of keys as she typed away, “not like that’ll be _too_ demanding of you anyway, but…”

  The voice in her ears trailed out til the comms broke off, leaving her to fully take in the dulling thud of the heavy electronic track that was getting more and more muted the further this girl pulled them down the hallway. They had gone past the toilets at this point, Jihyo was _pretty_ certain they weren’t supposed to be back here but then again, she did a lot of things she wasn’t supposed to. They stopped briefly outside a door with a barely-there sign tacked up on the front saying “STAFF ONLY”, before deft fingers turned the handle to find it unlocked and empty. The two stumbled in, falling into the soft darkness of the room as the door slammed shut behind them.

  “The lights,” the voice in her ear cut back in, voice soft as possible just in case it was overheard, “hit the lights Jihyo, I can’t see a damn thing.”

  She reached up, fumbling along the wall for the light switch but she found both her wrists held in a firm grip and the body in front of her was pressing her into the wall.

  “Keep it off,” the husky voice in her ear whispered, nipping and biting a path down the column of her neck as she strained up. She peppered kisses along her jawline, taking extra time to press against the swell of her throat and laughing against it when she felt a gulp go down.

  She heard a faint ‘shit’ from her ear as the lips on her neck left a searing trail on her skin, hot and messy and each one just as surprising as the last. Jihyo’s hands clenched uselessly, still held in an ironclad grip above her head and _really_ she should be worried about how vulnerable she was in this position, but this pretty stranger drew little breathy gasps out of her with every press of her lips to her skin - and somehow Jihyo didn’t entirely mind being so exposed at this moment.

  The sinfully curvaceous body pressed up against her own rocked and rolled in little, calculated waves, the room filled with Jihyo’s gasps and the sound of lips sliding against skin and fabric rubbing together. A bare thigh pushed its way between her own, holding her completely and utterly immobilised against the wall and sending an unbearable surge of heat through her stomach.

  Scalding lips pulled away and Jihyo sagged helplessly at the momentary lapse of relief on her senses. She could barely see anything in the room, the small amount of light shining from the solitary square window in the corner doing little more than highlighting the features of the face in front of her, and it took her eyes a while to adjust to it. She could make out the hint of a smirk, just barely there, and she felt slender fingers pressing into her chin to tilt her head back against the wall.

  She stared into dark, lust-clouded eyes, looking back at her with an amused acuity in their depths. The girl leaned in closer, sultry voice hooking Jihyo further and further into her hold.

  “Why are you looking for me, agent?”

  “Oh _fuck.”_ Chaeyoung murmured in disbelief.

  It was pure instinct, years of training tugging her body into action to get herself out of this suddenly hostile situation and apprehend the threat. She tried to kick out, but her deceptively strong body slammed her back into the wall hard enough to knock the breath out of her, winding her momentarily. She tugged furiously, writhing desperately to try and loosen the grip on her wrists but this girls will was resolute, maintaining eye contact with the young agent the entire time of her futile struggles.

  There was no malice in the way she stared back at her, just self-preservation and perhaps a strong dose of curiosity. Her gaze hardened at the lack of response, free hand coming up to wrap around Jihyo’s throat tentatively. She gave a light squeeze, a stern reminder that Jihyo was utterly and completely at the mercy of the target in front of her.

  “I asked you a question, agent.” She whispered, fingers flexing reflexively. Jihyo sucked in a deep breath.

  “Why,” she began, pushing her face mere inches away from Jihyo’s, “are you looking for me?”

  Her fingers tightened as if to punctuate her sentence, a reminder that this was an order and not a pleasantry.

  “An offer,” Jihyo choked out, trying not to cough pathetically at the exertion on her windpipe, “we have an offer for you, Miss Minatozaki.”

  Even in the poor light of the room, she saw the slow rise of an eyebrow in confusion.

  “Oh?” Sana’s hold loosened on her throat, as did the grip on her wrists. “That’s a new one.” She laughed, the sound startling Jihyo a little.

  “Usually people in this position are trying to kill me, or please me. Sometimes both.” She grinned deviously, and Jihyo ignored the dangerous dip her stomach did at the sight.

   _Now is_ _not_ _the time._

  There’s a burst of static in her ear, and she visibly winces at the unexpected noise. Dahyun’s booming voice blares into the silence of the room, loud enough for her captor to overhear too.

  “Jihyo! It’s the bartender too! She’s the other one, Hirai, we got into a bit of a fight and I _think_ my nose might be broken but anyway, I’m on my way to get you-“

  Dahyun’s voice cut out unexpectedly and the grip on her wrists and throat resumed, nothing gentle or lax about them this time. A controlled fury played out on Sana’s face, jaw hard set in anger and eyes blazing with determination.

  “What the fuck are you doing to my partner?” Sana spoke through gritted teeth, fingers clenching hard enough to bruise. Jihyo gasped desperately, oxygen supply unexpectedly cut off. “You said you had an offer, you didn’t say you were here to take out my fucking team.”

  The grip on her throat relents enough for her to breath again, taking excessive gulps of air like she hadn’t breathed for years.

  “We didn’t know,” Jihyo choked, airways still recovering, “we didn’t know how easily you’d agree.”

  The hand on her throat moves to grip at her jaw, likely leaving finger shaped bruises there too. God, the amount of make-up she’d have to wear for the next few days.

  “You didn’t know how easily we’d agree, so your back-up plan is to take us _out?”_ She snorted in disbelief, taking her eyes off of Jihyo for a moment.

   _Now._

Jihyo snapped her head forward, connecting with the face in front of her with a sickening thud. Sana stumbles back at the force, relinquishing her hold on Jihyo and she pushes off the wall with all her strength, surging forwards to tackle the girl onto the floor and pin her down. She wraps shaky arms around her waist, putting all of her weight behind the strike and it sends them both careering to the ground, Jihyo scrambling hastily to mount the target. She sees the fist flying towards her face, bringing her own arm up to parry it and slam it down, using her other hand to put weight on Sana’s shoulders.

  Her thighs are bracketing the girls, pinning her down with all her weight and ensuring she can’t use her legs to free herself, and she’s far enough away that she can’t use her head like Jihyo did to escape. The anger on her face is a scorching fury now, an unspoken promise of vengeance in her eyes. The only sound in the room is heavy panting from both of the figures at what had just transpired and the occasional shifting of the body underneath Jihyo.

  “We have an offer.” Jihyo begins, exhaling heavily through the loose strands of hair that now covered her face. “And we desperately need you and your partner to help.”

  Sana squinted suspiciously, and this close to the window Jihyo could see the blooming red mark on her forehead.

  “Me...and my partner?” she asked slowly, as if Jihyo was missing something big.

  “Yeah?” She replied unsurely. “Minatozaki Sana and Hirai Momo. Infamous vigilante crime duo that’s been unlawfully sweeping the streets for the past three years taking down the perps that the justice department are a little bit too well paid to care about.”

  (If she’s honest, she highly respects the woman underneath her right now. She almost feels bad about the headbutt.)

  “Am I missing something?” She follows up, seeing the bemused smirk below her.

  Sana let out a small laugh. Jihyo felt unsettled.

  “Earlier, when your little partner cut out after informing you about my _partner_ , do you think that was normal?” She mused, tone chastising and undermining.

  Clarity struck Jihyo like a thunderbolt as Chaeyoung’s voice crackled to life in her ear.

  “Jihyo, _run._ We were wrong, it’s not a fucking duo, it’s a goddamn trinity. There’s three of them Jihyo, she’s-“

  The door behind them creaked open, and Jihyo didn’t have time to turn her head around before she felt the cool kiss of metal against her skull. She heard the click of the safety trigger and looked down to see Sana looking behind her with adoration spreading across her face.

  “Partners. I have _partners.”_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so uh...it's been a while...

   Jihyo swallowed thickly, eyes never leaving Sana underneath her even as the cold barrell of a gun pressed insistently against the back of her head. Heavy breaths echoed behind her, as if the assailant had ran to get here in time, and Jihyo tried not to flinch when the chilling bite of the metal pressed deeper with every shaky breath.

  “How’s Momo?” Sana said, snapping Jihyo’s attention back to her. She was calm, lax, as if there wasn’t  a gun being held to the head of the woman pinning her to the ground.

  “Good.” The voice of the unidentified woman was soft, barely audible even in the still quiet of the room. There was an underlying strength in it though, and Jihyo felt it when she spat out her next words through gritted teeth. “She’s unconscious, but so is the agent who took her out.”

  Worry overcame Jihyo’s better judgement.

  “Is, is she-“ she began but she was cut off at the barrell being shoved into her skull.

  “Mina,” Sana began, looking behind Jihyo’s shoulder to make eye contact with her other partner. “It’s okay.”

   _Mina._

She hoped Chaeyoung was still listening to this. The tell tale voice in her ear was absent, but she heard the annoyingly familiar crackle of a microphone being tapped. _Perfect._

  The gun behind her was drawn away and Jihyo almost fell forward in relief. Sana was looking up at her bemusedly, probably because she still hadn’t gotten off of her.

  “Your _friend,”_ Mina spat harshly, “is fine. Might be a little sore in the morning but it’s what she deserves for drugging Momo.”

  Sana’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

  “She did _what_ , now?”

   _Oops._

  “We knew about Hirai, how she looked like” Jihyo began sheepishly, nervousness seeping into her voice. “And we decided to do this as peacefully as possible.”

  “Uh-huh.” Sana mocked from below her, wiggling herself to remind Jihyo of their position. “And how did that work out for you?”

  Jihyo sighed heavily, shifting herself so she no longer pinned Sana down and allowed the girl to pull herself up. She was surprised, when Sana finally brushed herself off, to see a hand extended to her too.

  “So what’s your offer agent?”

  Jihyo swallowed the thick knot of fear that had been lodged in her throat, the situation considerably less hostile now.

  “We,” she began, gesturing with a hand, “as in myself and my team, discovered something the other day.” She took a deep breath.

  “As you are already aware, I am an agent. The company I work for has been...less than forthcoming recently about events, and my missions have become increasingly mundane and useless even as this city is facing its biggest crime wave in nearly two decades.” She made eye contact with the girl in front of her, serious expression drawn tightly across her face as she listened to Jihyo’s plea.

  “You think that something’s going on behind the scenes.” The girl behind her voiced, moving around to stand next to Sana. She still had the gun in her grip, but from the way she held it Jihyo was sure it was to do with a sense of familiarity than intent to use it. Jihyo nodded sharply.

  “I _know_ that there is. And that’s why I’m here.” She gestured to the girls in front of her who both raised a single eyebrow in unison.

  “I think that The Erinyes have a hand in this.” She noted the sudden way both bodies in front of her stiffened, exchanging furtive glances that spoke volumes Jihyo couldn’t understand.

  “I don’t think you fully understand what you’re getting into here, agent.” Sana says, voice clipped and controlled.

  It’s a warning. Jihyo ignores it.

  “You’re right.” She says reluctantly, closing her eyes briefly.

  “Which is why I’m here.”

  “No.” Mina says firmly, no room for negotiation in her tone. Her stance shifts, steeling herself for resistance and driving her point deeper into the ground.

  “We’re clean, and we’re safe - and we’re going to keep it that way.”

  Jihyo eyes the woman in front of her; the one who’s somehow slipped under the radar for all the years they’d been following J-line. It would have been no easy feat, and Jihyo has a damning suspicion that this woman may very well have been the reason it was so difficult to find these girls in the first place.

  The quiet ones were always the ones to be most feared.

  “Not as clean as you think,” Jihyo replies slowly, noting the shock that stills the two bodies in front of her, “if we could find you, what makes you think they haven’t been watching you all this time too?”

  “How long have you known about us?” Sana demands, words short and sharp and dripping with command.

  “Four years.” She admits, seeing the concerned rise of Sana’s brows as Mina sucks in a shaky breath.

  They look at each other for a moment, concern painting every feature of Sana’s face and something akin to resolute fear soaking Mina’s. There’s a silent agreement, resolve melting away from Mina’s stubborn form, and Sana is turning to Jihyo with a mask of neutrality clipped in place on her face.

  “You’ve known about us for four years.”

  “We’ve known about you and Hirai for four years. We had no idea there was a third member.”

  There’s a satisfied smirk poking through the veneer of dread on Mina’s face. Jihyo supposes she’s earned it. Sana sighs heavily, brows scrunching together as she pinches the bridge of her nose.

  “They know. If they’ve been tracking us, they definitely know there’s three of us.”

  “There’s always three.” Mina chimes in, soft voice a stark contrast to the harsh colour in her tone earlier.

  In that moment everything felt too intimate, like there was _something_ Jihyo didn’t quite understand about their last exchange and she was a silent witness to something too private to explain. She watches them talk silently again, noting the familiar body language that they could gleam from each other with the slightest of movements and glances.

  It was polished, refined. Something that could only be achieved through years of teamwork and absolute trust in the other. She had yet to see how the dynamic would change with the presence of the third member, but she imagined the cogs in the machinery would turn just as smoothly as before - perhaps even better.

  “We’re not agreeing to anything,” Sana begins, stepping forward to stand barely a hair's breadth away from Jihyo, close enough that she could feel her body heat through the flimsy fabric of her dress, “but we’ll listen. All three of us.”

  Jihyo nods slowly, lets an easy smile make its way onto her face.

  She hadn’t expected an immediate agreement. In fact, this was the exact outcome her team had decided would be most likely - without the addition of a hidden third team member, but they couldn’t be entirely perfect she supposes.

  Sana shifts back just a step, extending her hair forwards as she did so. Jihyo grins, extending her own to clasp their hands together in a firm handshake. Sana’s grip is strong, and Jihyo knows the strength is no pretense, despite how soft and dainty the hand gripping her own might look.

  She also knows said hand is a little more skilled in other areas, if the loose clasp on her bra has anything to say about it.

  Mina tucks her gun slowly into the waistband of her jeans, and Jihyo supposes that’s the closest thing to a truce as she’s going to get from the cautious girl.

  She’ll take it.

  “You can tell whoever’s on the other end of your microphone to call off the reinforcements now.” Sana jokes lightheartedly.

  Jihyo sighs defeatedly, not surprised that the girl in front of her would let that brief moment Chaeng shouted a warning out to her slip past unnoticed. Before she can even raise her wrist to open the line, Chaeyoung’s voice cuts cleanly into her ear.

  “About that,” She says sheepishly. Jihyo can already imagine the hand scratching nervously at the back of her neck, tugging anxiously at the short strands there.

  “I may have already called them in.”

  “Oh for _fucks_ sake.”

  It’s then Jihyo hears it. The tell tale hiss of a compression canister being activated just outside and she watches helplessly as the smoke grenade is expertly thrown into the dimly lit room. She makes brief eye contact with the two Japanese girls staring at her incredulously, an apology on the tip of her tongue when it explodes, thick, engulfing smoke obscuring her vision and filling her lungs.

  “Ch-chae!” She coughs, hacking heavily with a hand to her mouth in a vain attempt to save her respiratory system even a little.

  “I’m sorry!” Is all she hears above the loud hissing of the canister and the thick coughs coming from the two other occupants in the room. Mina steps forward, t-shirt pulled over her nose and mouth and she fumbles blindly for the offending object at the centre of the blinding, grey smoke. Fingers find purchase, and Jihyo watches through teary, smoke filled eyes as the canister sails straight back through the window. Glass shatters and Jihyo’s sure she hears a _very_ familiar and indignant ‘ _hey!_ ’ as it does so.

  The door to the room flings open with a loud bang as it rebounds off of the wall, masked figure darting in ready for action until they took in the scene in front of them.

  They were covered from head to toe, long, athletic limbs extending hesitantly in front of them as they dropped their fighting stance. They had a mask on, one of the ones designed specifically for smoke inhalation, and she couldn’t see their face but Jihyo knew all the same who the tall, limbre agent in front of them was.

  Her comms sputtered to life as the agent in front of her tapped into their watch, slightly accented voice talking into her ear as she patched into her teams network.

  “Ji...hyo?”

  She grins in response, fist thumping on her chest as she tried to expel the smoke from her system.

  The smoke has almost dispersed from the room now, enough so that Jihyo can see the dual looks of murder written neatly on their newest allies faces. She coughs wheezily once more, pretends she can’t hear the sound of Nayeon sputtering outside and the thick, grey smoke rising past the window.

  The figure pulls their mask off, exposing Tzuyu’s understandably confused and worried face. She glances around the room a few more times, really pauses to take in the two girls glaring at the two agents with their arms folded angrily across their chests.

  “Chae said...that you needed help.”

  Jihyo smiles reassuringly.

  “I think Nayeon could do with a little more help at the moment.” She chuckles lowly, throwing a thumb over her shoulder to the source of the overdramatic wheezing and ill-fated monologue outside the window.

  If all else failed, at least Jihyo was entirely reassured that Nayeon would have a career in theatrics if the agent life didn’t work out for her.

 (It would be a shame - she was the second best agent in their division, really. Even more of a shame that she blindly followed Jihyo into this life.)

  She doesn’t miss the smug smile tugging up the edges of Tzuyu’s lips. She also doesn’t miss the keen tracking of Sana’s eyes as she appraised the younger agent, gaze raking wolfishly along her toned form.

  Dangerous. She was danger, in its purest form.

  “I think she’ll be fine.” Tzuyu says cooly, lips pursed to hold back a laugh as a wheezy ‘ _fuck you_ ’ cuts into both of their comms. Jihyo grins.

  “Where’s Dahyun?” Tzuyu asks, and Mina’s gaze shoots to a particularly interesting chip of paint on the ceiling, inspecting it thoroughly.

  “She’s passed out,” Jihyo informs the younger agent, says it nonchalantly enough that Tzuyu just nods easily as though this was standard information.

  “Where did you leave them?” Jihyo directs the question to Mina, noting the apprehension that bloomed on her face.

  It was well founded. Jihyo probably shouldn’t be so blase with the woman who knocked out her teammate and friend - but at the same time, what’s done is done.

  “The coat room.” Mina mumbles lowly, bracing herself for Tzuyu’s reaction.

  She doesn’t expect the unrestrained grin to spread across the younger girls’ features, eyes gleaming triumphantly.

  “You do not _know_ how long I’ve been waiting for this to happen.”

  Mina is confused, further so when the younger agent leaves to find her former teammate and Jihyo finds herself standing opposite the two Japanese girls once more.

  “Dahyun can be a little much.” Jihyo supplies helpfully, giving a small shrug as Mina looks at her in disbelief.

  “Is it a regular thing to want to knock out your teammates?” Sana teases good naturedly.

  Jihyo thinks of the past eight years on a team with Nayeon and Jeongyeon.

  “Oh, most definitely.”

  “I’m not entirely sure agreeing to this was such a good idea.” Mina says slowly, but there’s a tiny smirk just peeking through on her face as she says it.

  “We haven’t agreed to anything.”

   _Yet._

  The last word goes unspoken, but Jihyo hears it between the rise and fall of Sana’s chest as she looks back at the agent with a promise on her lips.

  It stays there even as they leave the building, stepping out into the back alley to see a red-eyed Nayeon glaring at them all furiously, waving them over to the nondescript van with Jeongyeon smiling happily in the front seat. Even when Tzuyu and Mina appear moments later, Momo’s limp form clutched safely in the confines of Mina’s arms with her head tucked against the girls’ chest, and Dahyun’s body thrown unceremoniously over Tzuyu’s shoulders like a sack of potatoes - Sana’s still watching her.

  She’s waiting for something. Or maybe she’s trying to figure something out, or maybe she’s just as intrigued by the agent as Jihyo was by her.

  She clambers into the front seat of the van, sitting next to Jeongyeon with a heavy sigh as the adrenaline from the night rushes out from her body. Jeongyeon is smiling at her, in a way that can only mean trouble, and _really_ \- she’s _far_ too tired for this.

  “What now, Yoo?”

  She gets a smirk in response, watching as Jeongyeon pops one of the compartments on the dashboard open and lazily throws a pack of tissues at her.

  “You’ve got something on your face.”

  Jihyo sits up straighter, looks into the mirror to see familiar lipstick stains smudged against her lips, and the trail of lipstick smeared exposingly along her jaw and down her neck.

  She catches sight of Sana staring back at her in the mirror, eyes burning intensely as she brings a thumb up to swipe at her own lips. Her tongue follows suit, and Jihyo has to wrench her gaze away from the intoxicating smirk that sat so comfortably on Sana’s face.

   _Dangerous,_ she thinks to herself as she scrubs lazily at the marks on her skin.

  She tries not to think about how definitively danger has directed the course of her life til this point, or how every one of her decisions has stemmed from her willingly letting one foot dangle over the edge with nothing to help her hold her balance. It was part of what made her the best agent in her division but Nayeon had always said that one day, it would destroy her.

  Right now, looking at eyes dripping liquid kerosene against her skin and lips begging to set her alight, she realises that this is the closest to the edge she’s ever been.

  And falling doesn’t sound all that bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am...so sorry i left this for so long, feel free to bully me about this i deserve it

**Author's Note:**

> drop a comment if u liked it i guess, or not whatever u prefer really xox  
> review from my friend reading this:  
> "what does indignant mean"  
> " 'keep it off' - ooh bitch we're getting into it now!"  
> "what's a mimosa"  
> "7/10, pretty good"


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